CCNY'S BOND CENTER OPENS PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE EXHIBITION

On February 4, the J. Max Bond Center on Design for the Just City celebrated the exhibition opening for Finding Common Ground: A Plan for Nicodemus National Historic Site, City College’s award-winning entry to Van Alen’s Parks for the People studio competition. Spitzer School of Architecture Dean George Ranalli, as well as Bond Center Director Toni Griffin and Director Denise Hoffman-Brandt of the school’s graduate landscape architecture program, joined faculty and students to toast the team’s model vision for the U.S. National Park Service.

The exhibition presents City College’s proposal for Nicodemus, Kansas, whose unique national park site tells the remarkable but little-known story of the African-American diaspora following the Civil War. The proposal blends the superbly conceived Nicodemus Web—a virtual network of institutional and community partnerships that tap into a geographically dispersed group of residents and town descendants—with nuanced civic improvements that fulfill the competition’s quest to use design ingenuity in service of broader inclusion and engagement in our nation’s greatest public spaces.

With its detailed analysis, including the sophisticated use of logic trees and “partnership wheels,” the exhibition captures the multilayered quality of the proposal, which the competition advisory committee applauded as “a thoughtful, sensitive, broad-based, and inclusive vision whose research was masterfully distilled into the final plan.”

The Bond Center’s exhibition is on view through March 1 by appointment. Call (212) 650-6751 for more information, and find out more about the competition and all the finalist submissions at the Parks for the People online gallery.

UPCOMING BOOK LAUNCHES AND EVENTS

On tap at Van Alen Books are three upcoming conversations about new publications that explore how architecture can be mobilized to effect positive social and political change. This Friday, February 22, we celebrate the launch of Architecture Inserted, which features the advanced studios of Chris Perry, Eric Bunge and Mimi Hoang, and Liza Fior with Katherine Clarke—the Louis I. Kahn Visiting Assistant Professors at Yale. The projects featured in this book all focus on the tactic of “urban acupuncture” to address sites of physical and social conflict. We will be joined by Yale School of Architecture dean Robert Stern and publications editor Nina Rappaport, along with professors Chris Perry, Eric Bunge, and Mimi Hoang.

On Thursday, February 28, we’ll take a look inside Civic Action with Noguchi Museum director Jenny Dixon, Socrates Sculpture Park executive director John Hatfield, founding principal of WXY Architecture + Urban Design Claire Weisz, and moderator Julie Iovine of The Wall Street Journal. The publication reflects on the work of four artists, brought on by the Noguchi Museum and Socrates Sculpture Park, who led teams investigating new strategies for community development and the role that artists and cultural institutions can play in creating positive neighborhood change.

And on Thursday, March 7, join us for an evening with Inhabitat architecture editor Bridgette Meinhold, author of Urgent Architecture: 40 Sustainable Housing Solutions for a Changing World. This collection surveys an international spectrum of housing projects—from emergency shelters and temporary housing to affordable, resilient designs built to sustain future disasters—that exemplify the potential for architecture to play a vital role in coping with natural disasters.

VAN ALEN BOOKS PICKS

Spring is just around the corner—and a fresh crop of titles is on the shelves at Van Alen Books. Here are some new and noteworthy architecture volumes you won't want to miss.
 

Torre David: Informal Vertical Communities
In the center of Venezuela’s capital, an unfinished 45-story skyscraper, a long-vacant remnant of financial collapse, has been inhabited by hundreds of families seeking shelter. The interdisciplinary studio Urban-Think Tank studies Torre David as a phenomenon in informal urbanism. The book documents how the tower’s residents have built a thriving yet precarious community from the ruins of speculative development, and posits a future in which improvised urban planning can be integrated into an expanded vision for civic life.

Patterns and Layering
Editors Salvator-John Liotta and Matteo Belfiore take a look inside Kengo Kuma Research Lab at the University of Tokyo in this new publication that explores the architectural methodologies of pattern and layering. Surveying the tradition of Japanese patterns in art and textiles, as well as the technique of spatial layering in the history of Japanese architecture, the book showcases the lab’s structural forms created by stacking and layering intricate patterns. As architect Kengo Kuma states, “These two previously detached notions can now be integrated into one methodology...Patterns and Layering is the first book to introduce this new interrelationship, which has the potential to begin a new architectural and design revolution.”

Architecture Words 12: Stones Against Diamonds
An Italian émigré to Brazil, Lina Bo Bardi was both a gifted writer and thinker—becoming editor of Domus at age 25—and a highly original architect who pursued a distinctive brand of modernism in her adopted homeland. This latest volume in the Architectural Association’s pocket-sized series offers the first English-language anthology of Bo Bardi’s writings. Ranging from essays on contemporaries such as Oscar Niemeyer to ruminations on the role of the architect in society, this collection celebrates an important critical voice of architectural modernism.

The Planning Game: Lessons from Great Cities
This new book by urban planner Alexander Garvin poses the question: “Can planners—or anyone—improve a neighborhood, city, suburb, or region?” From surveying stakeholder groups to explaining the economic and political rules that shape and constrain development, Garvin outlines the key concepts of how planning happens: who wins, who loses, and what determines which ideas will become a reality in the city. The book takes a look at examples from Paris, Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia to show how successful planning can generate quality public spaces.

Post-Digital Print: The Mutation of Publishing Since 1894
In Post-Digital Print, author Alessandro Ludovico examines the histories of alternative publishing and digital publications to explore how artists, activists, and technologists have utilized both print and experimental forms of networked publishing. Taking aim at the dichotomy between print and electronic publications, the book asks: “How will the analog and the digital coexist in the post-digital age of publishing? How will they transition, mix and cross over?” Post-Digital Print is a fascinating look at questions such as the archiving of digital material, emerging business models, and systems for networked distribution.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR ARCHITECTS AND DESIGNERS

Recognizing excellence in all areas of design enterprise, the Core77 Design Awards now celebrate the design profession in 17 categories, providing designers, researchers, and writers an opportunity to communicate the rigor and passion behind their efforts. Enter by March 15.

The Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition (RTFC) seeks entries for a two-stage international design competition to honor the victims of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and its legacy. Submit by April 12.

The annual Buckminster Fuller Challenge seeks radical and visionary ideas that have significant potential to solve humanity’s most pressing problems. The Challenge awards $100,000 to the winning proposal. Applications open March 1, and the application deadline is April 12.

The Deborah J. Norden Fund, a program of The Architectural League of New York, awards up to $5,000 in travel and study grants to support students and recent graduates in the fields of architecture, architectural history, and urban studies. Apply by April 17.

The Center for Urban Pedagogy is seeking a number of collaborators for their upcoming projects: a teaching artist to work with Dia:Beacon on an Urban Investigation exploring the role of museums in city life; new advocacy partners for Public Access Design, CUP’s new series of multimedia organizing tools; and proposals for Partnering for Impact, an upcoming conference hosted in collaboration with The Community Development Project at the Urban Justice Center and the Hester Street Collaborative.

SUPPORT PUBLIC DESIGN WITH VAN ALEN MEMBERSHIP

Now is a great time to show your support for Van Alen Institute, as we embark on a new season of public programs, design competitions, and exhibitions investigating the role of architecture and design in civic life. As you join us for our bookstore events this season, don’t forget that members receive a 10% discount at Van Alen Books, as well as invitations to special events and other benefits. Our ongoing work is possible in large part due to the active participation of Van Alen members in all our programs and events, and we thank you for your generous contributions. Find out more about our membership opportunities and how you can join us here.